Early onset of enamel formation in Baka pygmy's deciduous canines.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate by enamel microstructure analysis two hypotheses that would explain the early dental eruption in the Bakaparticularity, a shorter crown formation time and/or earlier onset of crown formation.

Design: Deciduous canines corresponds to the best teeth to perform the analysis of enamel microstructure. Longitudinal ground sections of 21 deciduous canines from 12 individuals were studied with transmitted light microscopy.

Reproductive seasonality in the Baka Pygmies, environmental factors and climatic changes.

Reproductive seasonality is a phenomenon common to human and animal populations and driven by, among others, climatic variables. Given the currently changing climate and its impacts on both the environment and human lives, the question arises of its potential effects on reproductive seasonality. Few studies have specifically explored the seasonality of reproduction among hunter-gatherers and anyone investigated how current climate change might affect this phenomenon.

Measuring body fat-How accurate is the extrapolation of predictive models in epidemiology?

Excess fat is a risk factor for many chronic diseases which can lead to premature mortality. Many studies have proposed predictive equations for body fat mass and body fat mass percentage based on anthropometric measures in relation to age and sex. However, the use of these predictive equations on other subject samples may not be relevant.

Morphological variation of the deciduous second molars in the Baka Pygmies.

The Baka Pygmies are known for their short stature resulting from a reduced growth rate during infancy. They are peculiar also for their teeth erupt earlier than in any other African population, and their posterior dentition is larger than in non-Pygmy populations. However, the Baka's dental morphology, like several other aspects of their biology, is still understudied.

The same growth pattern from puberty suggests that modern human diversity results from changes during pre-pubertal development.

Patterns of human growth established for one population have rarely been tested in other populations. In a previous study, three growth curves from puberty were modelled for each sex in a longitudinal study of a Caucasian population based on stature, age at peak of growth and biological maturation. Each curve represents the canalisation of growth associated with the type of puberty.

Age-related tooth wear in African rainforest hunter-gatherers.

Objectives: Central African small-scale foragers subsist primarily on hunting game activities and wild plant-food gathering. Starch-rich tubers are underground storage organs (USOs) and staple food resources in savanna and tropical rainforests. However, little is known about the effect of USO consumption on tooth wear development in living hunter-gatherers.

Tooth dimensions and body size in a Pygmy population.

The relationship between tooth size and stature has been analysed extensively at the interspecies level but has received less attention at the intraspecies level. The relationship between these two parameters does not seem to be the same among modern human populations. The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between tooth dimensions and body measurements in the Baka Pygmies.

Reproduction in the Baka pygmies and drop in their fertility with the arrival of alcohol.

To understand the diversity of human growth and development from an evolutionary point of view, there is an urgent need to characterize the life-history variables of vanishing forager societies. The small body size of the Baka pygmies is the outcome of a low growth rate during infancy. While the ages at sexual maturity, menarche, and first delivery are similar to those in other populations, fertility aspects are unknown.

Dental size variability in Central African Pygmy hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking farmers.

Objectives: Odontometric studies of African populations show high within-group variation in tooth size. Overall, North Africans exhibit smaller dimensions than groups from eastern and southern sub-Saharan regions, but no previous studies have analyzed the full dental metrics among extant African Pygmy hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking farmers. Furthermore, the population variability in tooth crown sizes from equatorial rainforest regions remains to be elucidated.

Growth pattern from birth to adulthood in African pygmies of known age.

The African pygmy phenotype stems from genetic foundations and is considered to be the product of a disturbance in the growth hormone-insulin-like growth factor (GH-IGF) axis. However, when and how the pygmy phenotype is acquired during growth remains unknown. Here we describe growth patterns in Baka pygmies based on two longitudinal studies of individuals of known age, from the time of birth to the age of 25 years.

Diet-related buccal dental microwear patterns in Central African Pygmy foragers and Bantu-speaking farmer and pastoralist populations.

Pygmy hunter-gatherers from Central Africa have shared a network of socioeconomic interactions with non-Pygmy Bantu speakers since agropastoral lifestyle spread across sub-Saharan Africa. Ethnographic studies have reported that their diets differ in consumption of both animal proteins and starch grains. Hunted meat and gathered plant foods, especially underground storage organs (USOs), are dietary staples for pygmies.

Brief communication: Molar development and crown areas in early Australopithecus.

Recent studies suggest that the hypodigms representing the two earliest Australopithecus (Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis) form an ancestor-descendant lineage.

Different cranial ontogeny in Europeans and Southern Africans.

Modern human populations differ in developmental processes and in several phenotypic traits. However, the link between ontogenetic variation and human diversification has not been frequently addressed. Here, we analysed craniofacial ontogenies by means of geometric-morphometrics of Europeans and Southern Africans, according to dental and chronological ages.

Diversity among African pygmies.

Although dissimilarities in cranial and post-cranial morphology among African pygmies groups have been recognized, comparative studies on skull morphology usually pull all pygmies together assuming that morphological characters are similar among them and different with respect to other populations. The main aim of this study is to compare cranial morphology between African pygmies and non-pygmies populations from Equatorial Africa derived from both the Eastern and the Western regions in order to test if the greatest morphological difference is obtained in the comparison between pygmies and non-pygmies. Thirty three-dimensional (3D) landmarks registered with Microscribe in four cranial samples (Western and Eastern pygmies and non-pygmies) were obtained.

Cutmarked human remains bearing Neandertal features and modern human remains associated with the Aurignacian at Les Rois.

The view that Aurignacian technologies and their associated symbolic manifestations represent the archaeologicalproxy for the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans into Europe, is supported by few diagnostic human remains, including those from the Aurignacian site of Les Rois in south-western France. Here we reassess the taxonomic attribution of the human remains, their cultural affiliation, and provide five new radiocarbon dates for the site. Patterns of tooth growth along with the morphological and morphometric analysis of the human remains indicate that a juvenile mandible showing cutmarks presents some Neandertal features, whereas another mandible is attributed to Anatomically Modern Humans.

Variation of functional cranial components in six Anthropoidea species.

Sixty male crania from three Platyrrhini and three Catarrhini genera were measured by means of the craniofunctional method. The aim was to analyze functional components of the skull and relate their function and the degree of encephalization to life history variables. We recognized two major and eight minor functional components.

A cross-sectional study of human craniofacial growth.

It is generally accepted that different cranial regions do not follow the same growth pattern. In this study, size changes of the functional cranial components (FCCs) in 228 human skulls of age at death between 0 and 20 years were evaluated. The skull is considered as divided into anteroneural, midneural, posteroneural, otic, optic, respiratory, masticatory and alveolar FCCs.

Cranial growth in normal and low-protein-fed Saimiri. An environmental heterochrony.

Protein malnutrition has a significant and measurable effect on the rate and timing of growth. Heterochrony is generally viewed as the study of evolutionary changes in the relative rates and timing of growth and development. Although changes in growth commonly result from experimental manipulations of diet, nobody has previously attempted to explain such changes from a heterochronic perspective.

Surprisingly rapid growth in Neanderthals.

Life-history traits correlate closely with dental growth, so differences in dental growth within Homo can enable us to determine how somatic development has evolved and to identify developmental shifts that warrant species-level distinctions. Dental growth can be determined from the speed of enamel formation (or extension rate). We analysed the enamel extension rate in Homo antecessor (8 teeth analysed), Homo heidelbergensis (106), Homo neanderthalensis ('Neanderthals'; 146) and Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Homo sapiens (100).